The 4 Day Win

Lisa and I have started reading The 4 Day Win by Martha Beck. The book has a different twist on dieting that I enjoy. Martha points out that we eat as a way to reward ourselves, so the key to weight-loss is finding other ways to reward ourselves. Martha has the reader set easy goals and a reward for accomplishing that goal on the first day, with a bigger reward for completing 4 days. This is to increase our ability to set and meet goals, and to learn to reward ourselves with rewards other than food. This helps us find new ways to meet our comfort needs without snacking.

This is how Martha explains the method:

"Adult development theorists know that significant change requires an "early win," evidence that our efforts are yielding success. It takes about four days of virtuous living to create a little weight loss. That also happens to be the time required to get used to eating less. In other words, if you can get past day three of a fitness regimen, things improve. I began to think about weight loss as a series of four-day wins.

Once you've started healing your brain with gentle, kind self-observation, you can lose weight by "sneaking up" your exercise and "sneaking down" your food intake in four-day increments. Sneaking is another way to prevent famine responses. If you're totally sedentary and eat 2,500 calories a day, don't instantly go to 1,200 calories and hours of aerobics—your weight loss will be sudden and violent, but also fleeting. Try dropping your intake by 100 to 300 calories and taking 500 more steps each day for four days. Then cut out another 100 to 300 calories, and add another 500 steps. Sustain for four days. Repeat until you see a weight loss. It will feel strangely easy to stay the course."

Lisa set a goal to drink more water, and I set a goal of eating a serving of fruit every day. Lisa's first day reward is new lipstick, and mine is an hour of computer games. Lisa's four day reward is a massage, and mine is an hour in a flotation (sensory deprivation) tank.